Social Media & Word of Mouth Marketing for Startups (Muhammad Saleem, Startonomics SF 2008)

Social Media & Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Startups Digg, Delicious, Twitter. Word of mouth has never been sexier. Learn how to use social media & social bookmarking to spread the word to your mother.

Where to find this presentation
The presentation will be available online at:
slideshare.net
muhammadsaleem.com
All the research, charts, figures, articles referenced, additional notes, and links to related resources will be available online.
Any direct questions should be sent to:
[email_address]

9 Industry Rules of Social Media Optimization
1. Understand your audience.
2. Be original.
3. Be link-worthy.
4. Make tagging, bookmarking, and sharing easy.
5. Help your content travel through RSS, email subscriptions and newsletters, embeds, mashups, e-books.

9 Industry Rules of Social Media Optimization
6. Reward and thank helpful and valuable users, linkers, and traffic sources.
7. Be real and genuine.
8. Participate.
9. Make SMO part of your process and best practices, develop a strategy and use the tactics wisely.

Some Notes:
Almost all social media campaigns are too generic and unfocused (don’t have a clear goal or don’t pay attention to specific communities and demographics).
Most social media campaigns don’t last long enough to be valuable and expect too much in too little time.

Core Services to Monitor and Use
Blogging/Microblogging.
Social News Sites.
Social Networks.
Online Media and Content Delivery.

Advantages to Social Media
Low Cost, Low Barrier to Entry.
High Impact, High Return.
Compatible and Complementary to Other Campaigns.

Why Blog?
Content and Community.
Conversations and Feedback.
Engagement and Evangelism.
Relationships and Loyalty.

Why Microblog?
Accessibility.
Personalization.
Intimacy.
Immediacy.
Includes: Airlines, Retailers, Manufacturers, Services, Entertainment, Media, and more.

Social Media and Search
The beautiful thing about social media optimization and marketing is that can sit right on top of your search engine optimization and marketing.

Increasing Search Rankings and Visibility

6 Examples
6 examples of well-executed strategy from different verticals.
Note that the content is relevant to the blog, the root site, and is developed keeping the social media formula (as well as category and title keyword popularity) in mind.

ProTraveller (OTBeach)

Flixter Blog (Flixter)

Mint Blog (Mint)

Sloshspot Blog (Sloshspot)

Palaestra Training Blog (Palaestra)

Experience Blog (Experience Project)

How to Execute?
Think Long-term.

Short-term Strategy

Long-term Strategy

How to Execute?
Think long-term.
Consider audience preferences, demographics, and verticals.

Audience Preferences

How to Execute?
Think long-term.
Know when to execute.

Conversion rate

How to Execute?
Think long-term.
Know when to execute.
Learn how to target.

Execution: Two Main Components
Content
Copywriting.
Design.
Community
Participation.
Presence.
Connections and Conversations.

Copywriting for Social Media
Write for ‘diagonal readers’.

The “10 Second Rule”
The average reader reads about 240 words per minute , where as a diagonal reader ‘reads’ (actually scans) closer to 15 words per second or about 900 words per minute . Optimize for diagonal readers:
1. The title or headline of your post.
2. The subtitles or subheadings within the post.
3. Any bold , underlined , “quoted”, or otherwise highlighted text.
4. Pictures, graphs, charts, images, videos, flash/interactive, rich media of any nature.
5. A summary of the article.

Optimize for all readers.

Writing for regular readers, search engines, and social media
1. Use All-in-one SEO to generate optimized titles and meta tags (description and keywords).
2. Prepopulate social media buttons for optimal submission.
3. Write on-page content for direct visitors and subscribers.

Use high-impact layouts above the scroll.

Example: Don’t

Example: Do

Use high-impact layouts above the scroll.
Write succinctly and with hooks.

The Social Media Title

Formula: The Social Media Title
The viral content formula:
[Number] [Adjective/Superlative] [Key Phrase] [Media Type]
Examples (shown before):
10 Movies that teach you how to commit crimes.
10 iPhone finance apps that count.
16 Drinks named for authors and their books.
25 Reasons it’s great to be an IT guy (or girl).
Morgan Freeman’s 5 most memorable movie moments.

Example: The Social Media Title

Execution: Two Main Components
Content
Copywriting.
Design.
Community
Participation.
Presence.
Connections and Conversations.

Layout and Design for Social Media
Your Site URL Structure and Hosting Service, Things to Avoid:
1. Hyphens or numbers in your domain name.
2. Keyword-stuffed domain name.
3. Any non-dot-com domain name.
4. Not self-hosted.

Layout and Design for Social Media
The General Site Design
Take Down the Registration-Wall or Pay-Wall
Are You Overselling Advertisements (or Using All The Wrong Ads)?
Stop the Widgetization of your Blog
Show Some Interest in Your Community
Recognition
Access (to popular content, etc.)

Two Main Components
Content
Copywriting.
Design.
Community
Participation.
Sharing.

The Social Media Community – Participation
Start by learning about the site and its audience.
Know why you want to use the site (not just for self-promotion).
Don’t be a troll, consider what the other community members want.
Participate in moderation.
Use your fans don’t abuse your fans.
Give back to the community.

Two Main Components
Content
Copywriting.
Design.
Community
Participation.
Sharing.

The Social Media Community – Sharing
Instant Messenger
Email
Using the ‘share’ feature (share, shouts, site-mail, direct-messaging)
Micro-blogging/Lifestreaming
Google groups, Skype groups, etc.

The Social Media Community – Sharing
If you’re going to share, be open to have others share with you.
Share with those that share.
Share once.
Don’t share randomly.
Get personal, share eloquently.
Don’t just share, offer to help.

Why Super Users are Important

5 Essential Rules of Social Media Optimization
Embrace technology, transparency, and community, rather than fight them.
Know what you’re doing, your audience demographic, and ultimate goals.
Focus your energy on specific niches and sites rather than hedging your bets.
Create value rather than expecting value.
Encourage and reward interaction and engagement.

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Social Media & Word of Mouth Marketing for Startups (Muhammad Saleem, Startonomics SF 2008)

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